Cloud computing growth set to drive data center consolidation

Business data centers are expected to continue to shrink as we head into 2011, with a number of organizations taking advantage of cloud computing technologies.

According to an article by ZDNet, there are a number of new technology trends which will continue to dominate the business world as the new year progresses.

"One of the most direct consequences of the cloud is that IT departments are shrinking their private data centers as they move to purchasing some of their apps through third party companies that deliver them over the internet," the article states.

Added to this, a number of other factors are also helping to drive this data center consolidation, including a rising uptake of virtualization.

The news comes in the wake of a recent report by leading research body Gartner which forecast that the worldwide spend on IT will grow by 5.1 per cent in 2011.

In total, business spending on IT services is forecast to hit $3.6 trillion by the end of the year, up on the $3.4 trillion seen in 2010, Gartner said.